M-Go Partners With Israeli Firm for 4K Streaming

12 Jan, 2015 By: Erik Gruenwedel

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Tel Aviv-based Beamr Video enables lower bitrates for less-expensive streaming of high-definition content, including 4K Ultra-HD

M-Go, the transactional VOD joint venture between Technicolor and DreamWorks Animation, has contracted with an Israeli technology company to enable less-expensive streaming of high-definition content, including 4K Ultra-HD.

Launched in 2013, Tel Aviv-based Beamr Video markets compression software that enables third-party video services to stream HD content at lower bitrates to end users. Beamr claims its technology can reduce the bitrate of H.264 video streams by up to 75% without affecting visual and audio quality.

Online streaming services such as Netflix, Amazon and iTunes typically encode full HD (1080p) streams at 5 to 6 Megabits per second (Mbps). Beamr said it can reduce the required bitrate for full HD streaming to around 3-4 Mbps, thereby enabling smoother playback with lower broadband connectivity at lower cost to streaming services.

“It is M-Go’s strategy to leverage the best available technologies to address the growing bandwidth squeeze challenge,” Samir Ahmed, CTO of M-Go, said in a statement.

Ahmed said M-Go is joining partnerships with media companies to grow its new-release content catalog, including future 4K Ultra-HD titles.

Indeed, at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Samsung announced its 2015 UHD TV sets would allow consumers to stream 4K movies and TV shows, due in part to M-Go’s new bitrate streaming capabilities. Last August, Samsung shuttered its video service, opting instead to partner with M-Go.
 

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